Today's Opinions

As you have been reading on these pages these past few weeks, there is an obvious and increasingly vocal disconnect between the parents and supporters of students in our county high schools and the administrators with the school district. We dare say there’s even a disconnect with the school board itself.

There has lingered in their district for a couple of years now a debate – sometimes raging hotter than others – about how high-achieving students should be honored at commencement.

In the 2008 election cycle, there was a phrase one candidate used that was then repeated over and over. The phrase was “putting lipstick on a pig” – meaning, of course, to try to make something that is ugly sound (or look) better.

Nowhere is that phrase more appropriate than in the discussion over the government shutdown that was averted, literally at the 11th hour last Friday evening.

In the 2008 election cycle, there was a phrase one candidate used that was then repeated over and over. The phrase was “putting lipstick on a pig” – meaning, of course, to try to make something that is ugly sound (or look) better.

Nowhere is that phrase more appropriate than in the discussion over the government shutdown that was averted, literally at the 11th hour last Friday evening.

When Roger Cleveland made that statement to a group of African-American students and school administrators, you could hear an intake of breath. Cleveland, an Eastern Kentucky University assistant professor, then added, “People who drug you to church...who drug you to the ACT prep sessions...who drug you to ballgames...who drug you away from the knuckleheads who might take you down the wrong path.”

Living in a state where three out of 10 of our high school students fail to graduate, it makes sense to celebrate and honor every child that can don a mortarboard and accept a diploma. We are proud of all that made the commitment to graduate: students, teachers, parents.
Yet, in a world that is shrinking so quickly that Kentucky children compete with children in China to grow-up to have a good-paying job and a home of their own, is it enough to celebrate graduation without recognizing those who did more to earn their diplomas?

A response to LifeBridge from the Monarchs, Mutts, Meows Fundraiser Committee (“Animal fundraiser bits 1 participant,” April 6): We wish we had more money to share with all animal-related groups. The need is so great.

A response to LifeBridge from the Monarchs, Mutts, Meows Fundraiser Committee (“Animal fundraiser bits 1 participant,” April 6): We wish we had more money to share with all animal-related groups. The need is so great.